The Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) has handed over the land documents to UAE- based Anrak Aluminium Private Limited for its proposed aluminium refinery and smelter plant in Visakhapatnam.

The company would spend about Rs 8,000 crore to set up a 1.5 million tonne capacity refinery besides 250,000tonne capacity smelter and 90Mw gas-based captive power plants at Makavaripalem near here.

“APIIC has acquired nearly 2,100 acres from farmers at Makavaripalem for the project. Of this, 1,900 acres have been allotted to Anrak while the remaining 300 acres would be used for rehabilitation purposes,” said Eswar Rao, chief general manager, APIIC.

APIIC paid Rs 2.5 lakh per acre to land losers while Anrak paid another Rs 2 lakh for each acre to farmers. The company would also give Rs 50,000 to each land losing family as part of the rehabilitation package. About 2,000 families are eligible for this rehabilitation package, he said.

The Andhra Pradesh Mineral Development Corporation (APMDC) will supply bauxite ore for the project. Bauxite reserves in the agency area of Visakhapatnam district is estimated at 700 million tonne.